NAROWAL: The flood in the Ravi River and the rainwater drain of Baen has started causing land erosion while dozens of villages are at risk of being submerged due to a breach in the river dyke.

Land erosion has started near village Jarmian Singha of tehsil Shakargarh and it is weakening the protective embankment of the river. Land erosion has started at two points due to rapid flow in the Nullah Baen while the erosion is increasing rapidly at the villages of Salian and Chak Nahra along the drain.

When this story was filed on Thursday, a moderate flood was passing through the Ravi, coming from India, and the rainwater drains of Baen and Basantar, coming from India-held Kashmir.

According to the irrigation department, a flood of 61,000 cusecs is passing through the Ravi at Kot Naina and 82,140 cusecs from Jassar. A flood of 4,900 cusecs is passing through the rainwater drain Basantar.

Muhammad Arsalan, a resident of village Chak Nahra, said the locals were facing massive losses due to the breach of the protective embankment of Baen. He said the residents of the village were making efforts to strengthen the dyke on their own and that tree trunks, soil and sand bags were being used to plug the erosion point. The district administration Narowal was informed about the land erosion.

Due to the flood in the Ravi on Thursday, thousands of acres of agricultural land at village Bheko Chak was under water. The Narowal-Shakargarh road was submerged with floodwater at Mandikhel and the traffic faced difficulty due to water on the road.

Vegetables, rice and fodder on 100 acres of agricultural land of a landlord in Shakargarh were washed away in a flash flood.

Muhammad Akmal Khan, a resident of village Jarmian Post, in tehsil Shakargarh, had 100 acres of agricultural land near the Pakistan-India border where he was growing bitter gourd, brinjal, mash, rice and fodder and all of them were washed away and cropland got covered by the sand of the Ravi. The flood also washed away water pumps and animal shelters of Akmal.

He told Dawn that the agricultural land was presenting a scene of a sea of sand.

Rana Muhammad Jahangir, the spokesman for the Gujranwala Electric Power Supply Company (Gepco), said Chief Executive Engineer Muhammad Ayub visited the flood-affected area of Zafarwal and inspected the work for the restoration of the collapsed tower of the 132kV on Pasrur-Zafarwal transmission line due to flood of the rainwater drain Dek. After the collapse of the tower, power was restored to 15 out of 16 feeders of the Zafarwal grid station through alternative sources. He said the teams had started work on an emergency basis.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2025